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Stars:
John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Thomas Hulce, Cesare
Danova, Donald Sutherland, Stephen Furst, Karen Allen, Peter Riegert, Mark
Metcalf, and Kevin Bacon
Writers:
Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, and Chris Miller
Director:
John Landis
Feature
length: 109 minutes
Extras:
Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update – Mocumentary, Anecdotes Text Track,
The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion, “Shout” Music Video, Trailer, Cast
and Crew Biographies and Filmographies, Production Notes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 36
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1978/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Imitated,
but never equaled, “National Lampoon’s Animal House” is the quintessential
college party comedy. Not even the film’s Director, Writers, and Producer have
ever been able to capture the impact and success “National Lampoon’s Animal
House” had on American comedy films. I think a large part is due in part to
the fact that there was not quite anything like this before “National
Lampoon’s Animal House” and everything that has followed since has perhaps
been unfairly raised up to “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and nothing
has yet surpassed it though there have been quite a few funny comedies over the
years that were either directed, produced, and written by John Landis, Ivan
Reitman, and Harold Ramis over the years in various combinations featuring
numerous “Saturday Night Live” alumni that have given it the good old
college try.
This
is also not the first time “National Lampoon’s Animal House” has been
released to DVD-Video, but it is now the definitive DVD edition with a new
transfer that was initially so clear that Director John Landis is rumored to
have requested the picture quality be lessoned a bit per his artistic choice.
However even if this is true, the new anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer
looks pretty good and the new English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is
actually pretty full sounding considering the 25 years or so that have past
since the film was originally released theatrically. The original English
Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack is also included along with English Captions for
the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles as options too.
There
is a text track of anecdotes regarding the making of the film, but surprisingly
there are not that many trivia facts revealed and few are all that interesting
to begin with. Fortunately one can disable and toggle between Caption and
Subtitle options while watching the film without the need of returning to the
interactive menus. The same holds true for the soundtrack. Windows based DVD-ROM
users will have access to InterActual enhanced features and web content.
Among the extra value set top video features are the 2003 mocumentary
“Where Are They Now?” (23:22), which features many cast members reprising
their character roles for this short to give viewers an idea of what happened to
their characters. Directed by John Landis, this short is not as funny as one
would hope although it is nice to learn what happened to certain characters and
to see some of the actors reprising their roles again. Next is a surprisingly
lengthy documentary with brand new videotaped cast and filmmaker interviews as
well as archived behind-the-scenes film from the production entitled “The
Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion” (45:16).
Onscreen
production notes, cast and crew biographies and filmographies, the theatrical
trailer, and a music video for the song “Shout” covered by MxPx (4:20) wrap
up the extra features directly related to this feature. The main menu is
animated with scenes from the film while the subsequent menus are standard
interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.
“National
Lampoon’s Animal House: Double Secret Probation Edition” is available on DVD-Video
now at retailers on and offline from Universal Studios Home Video.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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